Welcome to Cherry Tree Films Wedding Video Blog

After Graduation from the University of Birmingham and a 9 year career in the Pharmaceutical Industry as a Territory Manager for 2 multinational Pharma Companies, it was time to turn a hobby into a full-time business.

10 years later on and here we are running a multi-award winning wedding video company filming in some of the most wonderful venues across Scotland, and producing amazing award winning Wedding Films!

I absolutely LOVE what I do, and I think this passion shows through in our work.

Enough about 'me' ! Take a good look through the blog and you will learn a little about what makes us tick, get to see some samples of our work, find out how and why we manage to win awards for our films and our customer service, and hopefully get a feel for who we are too.

I have been busy honest! Although January to March is the quiet time for filming (only 3 weddings) it’s still been busy with catching up on editing and making sure the decks are clear in advance of the start of the wedding season.

So we’re all chilled out and ready to get stuck into our new ideas for 2009. We’ve got some cracking things to try out this year both in terms of filming and editing styles so do watch the blog and the main website’s demo room to see what we’re up to.

One for the guys….

As it’s been a while since I’ve posted a video, here is a quick peek at the ‘Guy’s Prep’ from Fiona & Jonny’s Wedding at Archerfield back in February.

Just a nice chilled morning for the guys, and a stark contrast to the highly charged ‘Girls Prep’ which I’ll maybe show another time

Well, we’re all ready to roll, so enjoy the planning and lead up to your wedding and all the very best! Have a fab day.

We’re almost at the end of our superbly restful Christmas and New Year break so thought we’d just post a quick ‘Happy New Year’ message to everyone!

We had a great Hogmanay with a few friends down in North Berwick, and even braved the cold for a walk along the beach on New Year’s Day (brrrrrrr!), especially impressive as we didn’t get to bed until nearly 4am, even Callum managed 3am (terrible parents huh!)

So, I hope you all had a great time?! We’ve got a couple of days left now, to fully recharge those batteries and get ready for a totally brilliant 2009!

Oh heck…. further to my earlier blog entry, it’s now 3am and I still can’t switch off!

I decided to stay up and finish off ALL my work before breaking for Christmas and this was the last thing on my list.

I decided to put this together very quickly (under an hour) for Lucy & Matt as their wedding at Prestonfield last Friday had a lovely Christmassy feel to it. So here’s a very quick ‘coming soon’ advert for their final wedding film, due end January 2009.

Right, that really is it…. 2 more DVD’s to author and I’m off to bed, the answer machine is going on and at last I can shout from the rooftops in a gravelly Black Country accent……

I’m not long home after another awesome ‘Same Day Edit’ at the wedding of Joanna and Kim at Lennoxlove.

The wedding crowd were so much fun, and braved the gales and rather un-australian weather for some great shots outside. (For me) the day culminated in their same day edit shown at 1030pm during the band break on the 6ft projector screen and music thumping over the PA.

It went down brilliantly with the B&G and their guests completely gobsmackedIt’s such a buzz to see people cheering and the fantastic comments and general ‘awe’ after the edit is shown do wonders for the enthusiasm levels

It’s been an extremely busy year, and December in particular has been amazingly busy with looong looong hours put in editing the huge backlog of work (it’ll be nearly February before we’re completely clear, but hey, we’re not going to rush stuff just to ‘get it out’ !!!!).

So I’d just like to say thanks to all our wonderful couples, for their good wishes and kind letters, and of course for their patience in waiting for their final edits. As ever, they all agree it’s well worth the wait, but thank you all nevertheless.

Thanks to all the amazing photographers we’ve worked with, it’s been a pleasure!

It’s been a great year and here’s to a brilliant 2009.

Thanks again all, and have a great Christmas!! Yvonne, Callum and I are going to enjoy some time off and have a wonderful family Christmas together, yipeeee!!!

Design Scotland Video Ltd are the proud winners of the 2008 VOWS Award for ‘Best Videographer’ in Scotland! Yeay!

We are doubly proud as we won the award in 2006, and it’s a huge achievement to win a second time.

The Awards Ceremony was a glitzy affair at the Glasgow Hilton, and Yvonne and I were joined by our good friend Simon Grosset (Q-Photography) who was also nominated, and Tracy Clark (ex Wedding Planner at Balmoral Hotel, now Events Manager at Barcelo Carlton Highland).

We had a great night albeit with slightly too much…er…dancing.

Below, are a few pics from the evening, and as usual Simon get’s well in on the action and dances with Yvonne more than me!!

On that note if you are looking for true unposed, reportage photography then do check out his website www.q-photography.co.uk

We just want to thank ALL our couples for voting for us, and it gives us an immense feeling of satisfaction to know that not only do you all LOVE your wedding films, but you really feel you have received the very best customer service possible. Yvonne, Derek and I really appreciate it!!

I know this may sound like an acceptance speech, but I’d also like to say a huge thank you to my
beautiful wife for being so damned brilliant at organising everything, and making sure I turn up at the right place on the right day, and for running things so smoothly in the background. We are a great team! Thank you Yvonne!!

So, thanks again to all our couples, and if you are waiting for your wedding film to be completed, don’t worry the ‘thick’ head has gone and after posting this update I’m straight back to editing!

Firstly this is ‘Part One’ of a two part Photo Shoot arranged by David Ho. The theme is indeed ‘Trash The Dress’ but the real trashing will be on the second outing, still to be arranged.

Anyhow, Rachel & Ian braved the Sunday shoppers and the occasional member of the public offering their services as an ‘entourage’ (some passers by just couldn’t understand R&I had already been married a year!) to allow David to get some cool shots.

I edited together just a brief intro to the whole TTD thing, there’s tons more shots to add, but this is all I had time for just now.

So, check back in a couple of months for the full film, but for now enjoy a couple of minutes sharing Rachel & Ian’s ‘Fun in the City’

On a sunny 08/08/08, the luckiest day of the century, I had the pleasure of filming the wedding of one of Scotland’s best Wedding Photographers. Laura & David Ho held their wedding celebrations at the beautiful Ballochneck House in Stirlingshire.

The day was all about family, and that really showed as everyone had such a blast. David did well to leave the camera alone for most of the day and his 2nd shooter, Andrew, did a great job of capturing David & Laura’s day. A great mix of relaxed, romantic and fun photographs, with a few ‘kooky’ ones to spice things up. Great fun to film alongside.

As my work schedule is pretty hectic, David went for our ‘Web Preview’ option so they would have a special short edit to show family and friends within a couple of weeks of the wedding. So here is their fabulous Web Preview edit.

David really is an amazing photographer, and after you have watched the film here, do drop by his blog and website to see some more of his fabulous Wedding Photos.

Thanks again David and Laura for asking us to share your special day! I look forward to working on the full edit in the coming weeks.

We had a fab morning out today at Raceland in Tranent, where Callum had his first Starter Course in Karting as a 10th birthday present.

He did well and really got into things. All good fun with only the occasional crash and a couple of spin outs.

I took the camera (of course!) and filmed a few bits and pieces. I decided to try and pay ‘homage’ to Top Gear so forgive the blatant plagiarism but it is just for fun and for Callum to show his mates. I was only allowed one vantage point so the karting footage itself is a little limited visually. Good fun though

St Mary’s RC Cathedral & The Caledonian Hotel. Edinburgh. Scotland.
In July.
Another balmy summer’s da……hang on, not again! Please, not a summer like last year !

Well, the rain took hold again last Saturday, and with the added pressure of a Same Day Edit to be shown at 10pm that evening on the ‘Big Screen’ to ‘wow’ the Caley’s wedding guests.

The rain always presents its challenges, but to be honest all it does is alter the style of filming a little and keeps us on our toes. This ‘Wedding Day Edit’ was great fun and despite the downpour I think we captured some great film, and here you can see the result of our same day edit.

Once again I have to mention the fact that this was edited in under 3hrs ON the wedding night itself. The dancing was running late so unfortunately time didn’t allow us to include any dancing shots but it’s a great film that shows all the wedding guests all the things that went on ‘behind the scenes’ and ‘in close up’.

It did, of course, go down an absolute storm with the whole wedding party, with them clapping along and cheering every other shot. A great way to get the party going again after the lull that is the buffet break.

Not something that we really want to do every week, as quite rightly it should be something ‘special’ but we’re always happy to discuss this option should you want to give your guests something very different to talk about.

Your wedding really does stand out from the crowd with a Same Day Edit!

Did you know that to be able to use professional copyrighted music on your Wedding DVD that we have to buy 2 types of copyright license?

Here at Design Scotland Video we do things professionally, and legally! We have both the PPL and MCPS licenses for your wedding film so we can legally add music from CD and from Live Bands to your Wedding Film.

It’s an added cost to running our business, but not a massive amount and we prefer to be totally legitimate in the way we run things.

It does make me wonder just how many other videographers out there bother?! There was a ‘poll’ run on an Industry website and the vast majority of companies and individuals out there did NOT buy licenses for their wedding work!

I found this astounding and just another example of all the folk out there that are doing things ‘on the cheap’ when offering Wedding Videography services. If a company is too cheap to bother covering the basic legalities of ‘copyright’ then where else are they going to cut costs? Their equipment? Their staff? Their editing time?

When choosing your videographer please do ask to see sight of the MCPS and PPL licenses for their productions, as you too are liable if you have a Wedding DVD that contains illegal use of copyrighted music!

It’s just another little thing that makes me realise that there are so many ‘weekenders’ and ‘part-timers’ out there that I’m so glad I took the leap all those years ago to form a professional, high quality FULL-TIME Wedding Film business.

Our focus on high quality individual wedding films, with exceptional customer service and total business integrity is vital to the way we work and deal with couples.

Trust is a major thing for us, as we are involved in such a special day in anyones life, so when choosing your videographer look at the person, the style, the samples, the equipment and the experience, but also look at the bigger picture. Do you have 100% trust in this person to deliver on the promises made?

If you choose Design Scotland Video, we sincerely hope the answer is a resounding ‘yes!’